Dad's Blog

Rumblings in the night

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 05:00:00 GMT

I woke up this morning at 4:37 AM to the sound of my wife screaming "Drew! Something... DREW EARTHQUAKE!!!!" I awoke to what sounded like peals of thunder outside and my bed bumping around like a washing machine who's spin cycle is out of balance.

Amy was beside herself not knowing whether to grab Micah from his bed or run downstairs and wake the children before they were crushed. In my soberminded 4:30 AM way, (aren't all fathers soberminded at 4:30 AM in the middle of their first earthquake?), I encouraged her to wait and not wake anyone just yet as it seemed things were settling down and not getting worse. She paused and indeed it seemed things were slowing down. In a few more seconds everything was still again. I laid down while Amy stood guard for another minute or two. When she laid down I suggested that maybe it would be a good school project for us to study earthquakes and figure out what in the world we were supposed to do next time if it were worse.

For those who are wondering, it felt like everything below the first 10 feet of soil was moving about 30 MPH as we just bounced around on top of it while it went by.

This morning the first thing I did was go to Google news to see just how big a quake that was and if it even made the headlines. I'm from Texas and have never experienced anything like that before, so I really didn't know how big it was. Sure enough it was the second article on the front page: "5.2 Earthquake rocks large region of Midwest".

I wonder what Amy's parent's will think if this happens again next week? :-)

The Flu Train Has Arrived

Wed, 24 Jan 2007 06:00:00 GMT

I was reminded last night that you don’t really sleep when you have the flu. Instead, your body falls into an Advil induced numbness as your brain seems to hover just over the pillow. Needless to say, the flu train has arrived at our station and we’re feeling it in a big way.

This all comes in the midst of packing to move from Texas to Missouri. Most packing has come to a complete stop, but every now and then somebody feels good enough to pack a few more boxes before disappearing into a quiet spot to shiver and shake until the Advil kicks in again.

All this is hitting Amy a little harder than the rest. She is 5 months pregnant and every cough strains her already over stressed abdomen. Yesterday she visited the doctor because she’s been sick the longest and just can’t seem to kick it. While getting her blood pressure checked she almost passed out. Her blood pressure was extremely low and the doctor concluded that she was severely dehydrated although she has been drinking tons of water. They ended up giving her fluids by IV, told her to consume a lot more salt and sent her back home. She’s doing much better today.

So, for now we are inching our way along as we continue to prepare for our move. Our hope is that this will all pass with sufficient time to finish up packing before our move date in early February. Your prayers are appreciated. Please let us know how we can pray for you.

Are They All Yours?

Fri, 02 Jun 2006 05:00:00 GMT

You wouldn't believe (or maybe you would) how many times our family is asked this question. It seems that everywhere we go people look at us and begin to count... one, two, three, four... How many are there? Nine!?! Are they all yours?

Sometimes being the novelty everywhere you go is kind of fun, but most of the time it is very weighty. We are always being watched. It seems everyone in the world feels that our lives are for public consumption. Perfect strangers walk up and ask very personal questions: Don't you know where kids come from? Are you planning to have any more? What religious belief are you?

Now how many times have you walked up to someone you've never seen before in your life and asked such questions? It's just not normal, that is, unless you have a lot of children. Then, it seems, everyone feels the liberty to investigate who you are and what you believe.

So, we've decided to start putting our thoughts here on this website. It's a place where people who want to know more about large families can get a feel for what it's like and a place where people with large families can get and share advice. Please poke around and send us your comments. We want to make this a place where people can find the answers to all things related to "Are They All Yours?"